A New Type of Bionic Manta Ray Robot

In this paper, a new type of bionic manta ray robot is designed and developed. The main task is developing a new kind of bionic pectoral fin which consists of internal skeletons and covering skin. The innovation of this design is that the cross-spring pivot is used as the core parts of internal skeleton. According to the actual movement of manta rays which are a typical MPF propulsion mode fish, we simplify the movement of bionic manta ray robot, and we improved its swimming performance through experimental analysis. The appearance of bionic manta ray robot is similar to a real manta ray, it has a pair of pectoral fins and a caudal fin. The bionic manta ray robot is 401mm in length, 757mm in width and measures 110mm at its thickest point. The velocity of the bionic manta ray robot reaches 0.8 body-length/s, it can be achieved turning in place with any turning radius. Generally, this bionic manta ray takes a new form of pectoral fins' mechanical structure, and the experiments show that the bionic manta ray robot has good stability and maneuverability.